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Just because you don’t own a distillery doesn’t mean you can’t have a hand in making your own whiskey. Whiskey starts its life as a clear, nearly flavorless spirit; it’s the aging process that provides the beautiful brown color and most of the smooth, smoky flavor. The Age Your Own Whiskey Kit provides all you need to age whiskey in much less time than you may think. The kit comes with a desktop-sized 2L charred oak barrel, two 750ml bottles of “white dog” un-aged whiskey, a funnel, two tasting glasses, and clear instructions. Swell the barrel with water to make it watertight, then drain, pour in the young whiskey, and wait. Thanks to the high proportion of surface area to volume, you can age in three to six months what would normally take a few years. I tasted mine after the first week and it’s already developing color, smoothness, and smoky, caramel flavor.

John Edgar Park likes to make things and tell people about it. He works in CG animation at DisneyToon Studios and writes for Make, Boing Boing, and other places online and in print. You can find him at jpixl.net and twitter @johnedgarpark — if you like that sort of thing.